In a variety of different fields, businesses and residences, there is a great desire that people wash their hands more effectively and more frequently. The US Center for Disease Control has stated that “The most important thing you can do to keep from getting sick is to wash your hands”. And yet, many people, through lack of knowledge, poor habits or simple negligence either do not wash their hands frequently enough or effectively enough.
An example of a specific need for assuring sanitized hands is the food services industry. It has been known for many decades that food preparers, servers and so forth should clean and sanitize their hands prior to handling food to be served. This need is self-evident when food service employees enter restrooms. Bacteria (such as E-coli, those found in fecal matter, uncooked foods etc) in restrooms are well known health hazards and without proper cleaning/sanitization of the hands of restaurant employees, can be transmitted to unknowing customers. These and other concerns also suggest a need for sanitizing hands in private residences, especially in homes with children.
Currently, food service concerns, parents as well as health industry participants are trying to address the problem with rules and regulations concerning hand washing. For instance, in many food service establishments there are signs which state roughly “Employees must wash their hands before leaving.” Methods which require adherence to a rule or policy by human beings with little or no reinforcement or monitoring are typically insufficient to maximize compliance. Importantly, such rules and regulations do little or nothing to assure that even if hand washing is done, it is done correctly (e.g. for a long enough period of time or energetically enough to kill the germs).
Presently there are both patented and un-patented systems intended to address the problem of insufficient hand washing. These systems are typically very complex and, accordingly, prohibitively expensive. U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,945, for example, discloses a complex system that has a sanitizing basin with moisture proof switches inside the sanitizing basin and proximity detectors. A person must insert both hands simultaneously into the sanitizing basin in order to initiate the desired output signal. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,426,701; 5,945,910; 5,812,059; 5,202,666; 4,896,144; 3,967,478; 5,610,589; 4,688,585 and 5,199,188 and U.S. patent applications 20030030562; 20030197122; 20030019536; and 20040001009 all involve relatively complex systems containing such things as complex electronics, location sensors; pumps and so forth (often mixed together in complex attempts to require hand washing). In summary, the presently available systems are typically expensive, complex to install, difficult to maintain and it can be difficult to train users in their operation.
One simpler concept is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,031,461; 6,147,607 and 6,211,788. These patents disclose a method and apparatus to assure the washing of hands by marking a person's hand with an easily identifiable substance which requires the washing of the hands when a person does something where washing of the hands would be desirable. These prior art patents cover broadly the concept of marking of the hands in order to achieve washing of the hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,925 discloses a soap dispenser that has timing means when it is utilized, but it does not include a base that is sized to be usable with a great variety of different soap dispensers and it does not include the additional hygiene assurance method of the hand marking system disclosed in the subject invention.